The Feast of Souls

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER TWO

Present day …

I was awakened from my deep slumber by a loud alarm blaring in my ears. Halfway between consciousness and sleep, I rolled over in my bed and slammed my fist down on the alarm clock by my bed, instantly silencing its alarm and making my room quiet again.

I sighed with relief and pulled my blankets closer up to my chin. This was the time I normally got up in the morning, but ever since I was paid that handsome fee from Master Adam for that case I solved for him, I had taken to sleeping in later than I usually did. It helped that my bed was extremely soft and comfortable. Sometimes I felt like I could just sink into the silky sheets and cloud-like mattress and never wake up again …

A sudden weight landed on my stomach, causing me to open my eyes and gasp at the impact. Raising my head, I saw a familiar black cat sitting on my stomach, looking at me with an expectant look in his purple eyes, his tail swishing back and forth behind him impatiently.

“Are you up yet?” asked Simon. His voice sounded extremely loud, even though he wasn’t even shouting, which was probably because I was still half-asleep. “I heard your alarm go off, but then you turned it off.”

I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. “I was going to go back to sleep, but then you jumped on me like a meteor. So now I can’t.”

Simon smiled mischievously. “That’s good. It’s breakfast time for me and I need you to feed me.”

I groaned. “Can’t you feed yourself?”

“You know I’m no good at opening those food cans with my telekinesis,” Simon replied. “Besides, I know for a fact that you aren’t a lazy good-for-nothing. You used to get up bright and early to work on your cases. Even before the Feast, you used to get up early to get a head start on demon-hunting.”

Scowling, I glanced at the clock and saw that it was 6:30 in the morning. “I know, but that was then, this is now. I made so much money from that last case with Master Adam that I don’t feel the need to get up so early anymore. I thought you’d like this new schedule, seeing as you are a lot lazier than me.”

“Habits are hard to break,” Simon admitted. “Especially when it comes to food. Now, are you going to get up and feed me or I’ll rip up your sheets.”

Sighing, I said, “Fine, fine, I’ll get up and feed you. Just get off me first, okay?”

Simon hopped off my stomach and off of my bed. He quickly disappeared through the open bedroom door—which was I pretty sure I had closed last night before going to bed—and then I heard the patter of his padded footsteps as he walked across the kitchen floor. He was probably waiting by his food dish now, which meant I definitely needed to get a move on before he started meowing like a stray.

I tossed my blankets off my legs and stood up. Stretching my body to get the kinks out of my muscles, I put on my soft blue slippers and shuffled out of my room, down the hallway, and into my nice and shiny new modern kitchen. It was a huge improvement over the kitchen from my last apartment, with more modern appliances and cooking equipment that made me feel like I was in one of those amage science fiction movies. Simon wasn’t hard to find, sitting expectantly next to his shiny new food bowl, his purple eyes following my every move as I pulled a tuna can out of the top cupboard and opened it with an automated can-opener that had come with my apartment when I first rented it about a month ago.

I then dumped the tuna into Simon’s bowl and said, “Eat up. It’s all you’re getting until lunch.”

I didn’t even get to finish my sentence, however, before Simon stuffed his face into the bowl and began eating the tuna like he was starving. Smiling despite myself, I tossed the empty tuna can into the trash and shuffled across the floor to the coffeemaker, which had already prepared a hot pot of coffee for me overnight. I poured myself a hot cup of coffee, added some creamer, and then leaned against the shiny marble countertop, sipping my coffee and enjoying the smooth vanilla-flavored coffee as it went down my throat and into my stomach.

Things had changed a lot for me and Simon ever since we helped Master Adam stop that breakout at the Shadow Prison. For one, Master Adam had paid us more money for that case than we’d ever earned for one case before. Indeed, the amount of money he paid us was more than the last four or five cases combined, and then some.

So we had taken advantage of that sudden windfall of cash to move out of our dinky old apartment in the dingy part of Accord, Texas to move to the Crystal Lakes Apartment Complex in downtown Accord. Rent was far more expensive here, and we were still surrounded by amage neighbors on all sides, of course, but overall this was a definite step up in our living arrangements. It was almost like living back in the House family mansion … almost.

In terms of business, I was dealing with fewer clients than usual, because the money Master Adam paid us was enough to pay our rent here for a few months at least. Indeed, I hadn’t worked much at all over the last month or so, taking more days off and just generally having more fun than I’d had for the past four years. I might never be accepted back into mainstream magical society ever again, but when you had money like I did, I suddenly wondered why I ever cared for their acceptance in the first place.

“What are we going to do today, Noah?” said Simon, looking up from me from his empty food bowl. He licked his tuna-stained lips. “Going to look for more clients or—?”

I shook my head. “Nah, Simon. I’m feeling lazy today, so I think we’re going to take the day off. Might watch some amage TV and catch up on some shows I missed.”

Simon grimaced. “I still don’t get why you like amage TV so much. It just seems like garbage to me.”

“Call it a guilty pleasure,” I said. “You don’t have to watch it with me, anyway if you don’t want to. Why don’t you go down to the park and try to pick up one of those pretty girl cats I saw? You could use a girlfriend, you know.”

“So could you,” said Simon. “Especially now that you have such a nice place. Tons of girls would be willing to die to live in a place like this.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m not looking for a relationship right now, Simon, and you know it. I just want to kick back and enjoy things a little. That’s all.”

“If you say so,” said Simon. He stood up and stretched. “I’ll probably find a nice warm spot in the sun to lie down in and sleep for my afternoon nap. I like that spot by the fireplace, it’s really—”

Simon was interrupted by a loud ringing bell that echoed through the entire apartment. The sudden ringing almost made me jump, though I spilled a little bit of coffee onto the floor before catching myself. Ripping a paper towel off of the dispenser, I immediately wiped up the spilled coffee as I said, “Was that the doorbell?”

“I think so,” said Simon, glancing in the direction of the front door. “Expecting any visitors this morning?”

I shook my head. “No. And I’m not expecting any deliveries, either.”

“Then who could it be?” said Simon. “Not the Mormons again, do you think?”

Standing up, I threw the stained paper towel into the trash and said, “I’ll go and check out who it is. You stay here.”

Brushing back my messy hair, I made my way across my living room to the front door, which was on the other side of the apartment. Before opening the door, I peered through the peephole to get a glimpse of whoever had rung the bell, thinking about how nice it was that my new apartment had a peephole where my last apartment didn’t.

I saw a young woman standing on the other side of the door. She had incredibly pale skin—almost as white as snow—and incredibly dark hair as well. She was dressed in a black t-shirt and jeans, her arms folded in front of her chest, tapping the floor of the hallway outside my apartment with one foot impatiently. She was not facing the door so I couldn’t see her face, but she definitely didn’t look like anyone I knew.

“Who is it?” said Simon, who I had not heard pop up behind me.

I looked down at Simon. “A woman. Looks like she’s in her early twenties or so. Never seen her before.”

“Is she one of your neighbors?” asked Simon.

I shook my head. “No. I’ve met all of my neighbors and she doesn’t look like any of them.”

“Maybe she’s a mage looking for help,” said Simon. “Why not open the door and talk to her? You need some work, don’t you?”

“Well, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to talk to her,” I said.

I opened the door. As soon as I did, the woman whipped her head to face me and I almost lost my breath.

She had the most beautiful face of any woman I had ever seen before in my life. It was heart-shaped, with a small round nose and brown eyes that I could get lost if I stared into them too deeply. There was also something oddly familiar about her face like I had seen her somewhere before, but for the life of me, I couldn’t place where I’d seen her before.

“Hi,” said the woman. Even her voice was drop dead sexy, sending a tingle down my spine despite myself. “Are you Noah House?”

I gulped. “Yeah. Sorry for my hair. I just got up and haven’t had a chance to—”

Without warning, the woman stepped inside and kissed me straight on the lips.